which airline has decent award availability 'except' when you need it?
 

I'm not talking about lack of award availability. That award goes to DL and India's version of it (9W). I am talking about airlines with decent availability except when you need it. For me its Turkish Airlines.

I'm actually going to go AS here. Quite a few times when I have all the other flights mapped out, the last short haul AS segment fails me... when there is plenty of award space on all the other flights except the one I need...

I needed them only once, but they seemed to be good to me.

As we are discussing mileage award availability, please follow the thread to the MilesBuzz forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Delta.

They have it, but they want like 30% premium on the point redemption

I suppose it's a pretty tough question to find a universal answer, depends on what routes, times of year, how many seats, class of service...or luck! I've had more trouble with AA than any other.

I've found that DL has the BEST availability overall, but has the WORST availability at the LOW level. It's all in how you look at it.

I would say the SkyPesos effect is applicable here also. They'll have it, it'll just cost you enough to redeem for a round-trip to Mars on another airline. :D

10k UA/CO 700 mile redemptions = serious cash savers. I just booked $727 tickets for 20k round trip.

If you spend more then 12.5k on domestic one way redemptions with UA/CO/AA you are likely flying first class.

You can spend 12.5k on a one way redemption with UA/CO/AA! DL one way award redemptions do not exist at these levels!


DL is just incredibly good at making you work hard for your redemptions and then sucking the miles out of you all in one easy swoop for them. DL may have stronger partnerships in SE Asia, better international first class products, or better IFE, but unless you fly business out of a DL hub held captive then you won't be earning enough miles to get there with DL.

You will become more accustomed to paying 40-60k r/t domestic coach with Delta.

DTW-LGA can be 40-60k with Delta, meanwhile someone on UA/CO may spend 20k. How does this make you feel?

Delta is great when not using Delta. Thankfully I'm based out of a place where AF flies :)

JL tends to be a bit annoying for me. Often there's a really nice flight from Narita back to the US available, and there's no availability on PVG-NRT/HND or something like that. Not nearly as annoying as DL though.......thankfully Skydong are very very cheap so the annoyance isn't as big of a deal as others make it out to be.

Folks, As mentioned in the OP, DL does not qualify as it holds the award for worst award availability at any time. I am more interested in airlines that have availability the day before or after the flight you want or the flight before or after you want. There needs to decent overall availability.

Delta is the worst airlines to use their miles.
When I try to use it, most of the times it costs double or triple the miles.

Alaska and US tend to have great bargains that are seldom available.

AA & UA seem best in that order.

The only reason Spirit's ff program is around is to make SkyPesos look good.

Unless you ask Mod to modify your title, you would continue to receive DL as the answer every 3 posts! Just sayin. ;)

When I want to book an award in/out of a tiny regional airport, it seems like all the airlines let me down.